The Duke of Devonshire, who spoke with even more than
his usual force at Yeovil on Tuesday, remarked that the vigour of his present political opponents is so great that they seem disposed to ignore even the limitations of time an& space, and to shove on one Session before the other till each Session opens a month later than its predecessor, which will have stolen a month from it. The Home-rule Bill was, he said, an Old Man of the Sea, which the new Administration could not escape without losing its Irish allies, and so being put in a minority. As for the crime alleged against the House of Lords, that it had rejected the last Home-rule Bill,. unless Lord Rosebery were to reintroduce the same Bill,— which is most unlikely,—how could the House of Lords be- blamed for having given the Government the chance of amending their proposals and removing some of the blots ? The English people had by their representatives declared themselves hostile to the principle of the Bill, and even if they were to change their minds, England could hardly con- demn the House of Lords for not having foreseen that the English nation was about to change its mind. If Lord Rose- bery intended really to push on the Home-rule policy, he had nothing to expect from the Liberal Unionists but "direct and uncompromising opposition." Assuredly at the first fitting opportunity they intended to "give a final and fatal blow to. this imposture."
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